The present invention relates to an electronic circuit, and, in particular, to a construction therefor.
Electronic identification and tracking of articles, persons, transactions and the like is becoming more prevalent, and the identification devices that include an electronic device utilized for such identification and tracking are variously referred to as smart tags, smart cards, RF tags, RFID tags, wireless cards, wireless tags, contact cards and tags, and the like. Identification devices for certain utilizations such as credit cards, debit cards, cash cards, driver""s licenses, are of controlled size and often are relatively rigid and/or inflexible.
A prior art wireless tag includes a spiral antenna on a substrate and an electronic device, typically an electronic chip or integrated circuit, connected to an antenna. Where the antenna has only one or two turns or loops, the electronic device may be mounted directly over and straddling the antenna because the distance between the contacts of the electronic device is greater than the distance between the terminals of the antenna. An example thereof is illustrated in FIGS. 15-16 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,404,643 issued Jun. 11, 2002, to Kevin Kwong-Tai Chung.
In a more common example, however, owing to a larger number of turns or loops of the spiral antenna and/or of the width and spacing thereof, the distance between the antenna terminals is substantially greater than is the spacing of the contacts of the electronic device. Connection across antenna 20 may be a conductor on the opposite side of substrate 12, as illustrated, for example, in FIGS. 2, 3A-3B and 6-8 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,420 issued Mar. 5, 2002, to Kevin Kwong-Tai Chung.
For many xe2x80x9chigh-volumexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chigh-quantityxe2x80x9d utilizations, however, such as product tags, inventory tags, anti-theft tags, laundry tags, baggage tags and the like, the tags may be used only one or two times before being discarded. The tags described in the aforementioned U.S. patents are very suitable for such utilizations, but are usually much more durable and robust than is necessary for single-use tags. Other prior art tags tend to employ multiply-layered substrates, complicated connection and interconnection arrangements, and the like, which tend to make them too expensive for use in a tag that is disposed of after only one or two uses.
The cost of the identification tag could be reduced if a thinner, more flexible and inexpensive substrate were to be used. One significant problem associated with a thinner, more flexible substrate material is that it lacks the xe2x80x9cdimensional stabilityxe2x80x9d of the thicker higher-cost substrate materials and tends to curl and ripple rather than remaining planar or xe2x80x9cflatxe2x80x9d as do stiffer substrates. As a result, it becomes very difficult to place and solder electronic devices on such thin, flexible substrate materials with sufficient accuracy of contact registration to consistently produce acceptable identification devices, even when highly accurate xe2x80x9cpick-and-placexe2x80x9d automated assembly equipment is utilized. This problem becomes worse when making tags having different sizes and configurations, particularly smaller tags.
Accordingly, an electronic circuit arrangement for an identification tag employing a thin, flexible substrate would be desirable. In addition, it would be desirable that such arrangement could utilize automated assembly, and yet could still be of sufficiently low cost as to be disposable.
To this end, the electronic circuit of the present invention comprises an electronic jumper having two contacts spaced apart substantially the predetermined distance, and an electronic device on the electronic jumper and having two contacts respectively connected to the two contacts of the electronic jumper.
According to another aspect, an electronic article comprises a substrate having an electrical conductor thereon, wherein the electrical conductor includes two contacts spaced apart substantially a predetermined distance, an electronic jumper having two contacts spaced apart substantially the predetermined distance and respectively connected to the two contacts of the substrate; and an electronic device on the electronic jumper and having two contacts respectively connected to the two contacts of the electronic jumper.